


You've Always Been Weird, But You're No Different

by Duck_Life



Category: Lab Rats (TV 2012)
Genre: Brothers, Coming Out, Family, Fluff, Gay Male Character, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 12:02:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12606176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: Chase finds something out about his big brother.





	You've Always Been Weird, But You're No Different

Chase would  _ love _ to be focusing on his anthology of Russian short fiction, but it’s a little hard to focus with Adam rampaging across the lab, stomping and pouting like a mopey tornado. “Will you sit down?” Chase says finally, glaring at his brother over the cover of his book. “Or at least go do that somewhere else?”

“Hm?” Adam says, looking startled. “Oh, Chase, I didn’t see you there.” He looks shaken, like he just got dragged out of his train of thought. And those trains are few and far-between when it comes to Adam, Chase knows that better than anyone. He can’t help but be perturbed by his brother’s reaction. 

“Yeah, well,” he says, deliberating whether to keep reading, or mark his page and address Adam. He picks Adam, using a piece of graph paper on the cyber desk as a bookmark. “Are you okay? Is something going on?”

“I’m fine,” Adam says, failing to sound convincing. “Fine, fine, fine, with a capital F. Everything’s peachy green.”

“Peachy keen,” Chase corrects automatically. “Look, you can talk to me. Obviously you’re upset about  _ something _ . Is it Douglas?”

“No.” Adam actually looks so surprised by the question that Chase feels sure he’s being honest; whatever’s going on with him, it has nothing to do with Evil Uncle Daddy. “Okay! It’s Bree.” 

“What about her?” 

“She’s… she’s out with Owen again,” Adam says, but Chase isn’t really getting it. These days, she’s always out with Owen. Is that it? Adam’s mad that she’s not spending more time hanging out with her family? “I don’t know. I just don’t like it.”

“You don’t like it,” Chase repeats, trying not to smile. Sometimes he hides it alright, but Adam’s definitely the clingiest of the three. “Well, tomorrow’s family game night. I don’t know if Mr. Davenport is going to make it, but we can make sure Bree’s there. And Leo too. It’ll be fun. And I promise: no Scrabble.”

He thought that would work, but Adam just shakes his head. “No, that’s not what’s bugging me,” he says. “It’s just… Bree doesn’t even  _ like _ Owen, you know? She doesn’t like him that much, she doesn’t like his art.”

“Okay?” Chase says, not really following. “I think she  _ kind of _ likes him, though.”

“Yeah but if anyone’s going to be going out on dates with Owen, it should be someone who  _ really _ likes him,” Adam bulldozes onward. “Bree just… she just kind of puts up with him, but some people really like him. And his art.”

“Jeez, Adam, you’re starting to sound like  _ you’re _ the one who likes Owen.” Chase is about to keep talking, but then Adam looks up at him suddenly, eyes big and scared, and Chase gets it: he hit the nail on the head. “ _ Oh _ .”

Adam immediately ducks his head down, embarrassed. “Sorry.”

“You don’t… hey, you don’t need to apologize,” Chase says, sliding his book to the side. This is more important. “Come here.” Adam slowly walks across the lab like he’s walking to his own execution. Chase grabs both of his hands. “Look at me.” Reluctantly, Adam does. “It’s okay, Adam.”

“No, it’s not,” Adam says, snatching his hands away. “I know I’m not a genius like you but I’m not  _ stupid _ . I know it’s not okay for me to like Owen the way Bree likes Owen… the way girls like Owen. I know that. And I know I should like Stephanie or Caitlin, but I don’t, I like Owen, so… so I guess I have to move to Alaska now.”

Even Chase’s bionic brain needs to scramble to keep up with all that. “Wait, why do you have to move to Alaska?” 

“Well, I can’t live  _ here _ anymore,” Adam says incredulously, jerking away so fast that he almost tugs Chase away from the desk. “I know you and Bree don’t want me sleeping down here with you, and Leo won’t want me here, and if Mr. Davenport finds out…”

“Hey,” Chase says, grabbing Adam’s hands again. “Look at me.  _ Look at me _ .” He refuses to make eye contact, and Chase wonders if he’s crying. “Nobody thinks like that,” he promises, and then corrects himself. “Nobody in this house thinks like that, Adam. I mean, please, if we were ever going to kick you out it’d be over all the singed furniture, not over you liking a boy.” Chase keeps his tone light, but Adam still looks worried— and his hands are shaking. “Adam,  _ it’s okay _ .”

“Stop trying to make me feel better, alright, I’m…” It sounds like he starts to say “scared” but he backtracks. “I’m  _ not _ okay. And it’s not okay. And… and, okay, look, I saw what happened at the winter formal when Erik McKinnon showed up with Tyler Jones, I know what… I know that it’s not  _ normal _ and I’m not  _ normal _ .”

He looks the way he looked when they were kids and Chase fell off the rock wall, the way he looked the day they were standing outside school and Leo found a dead bird. He looks small and scared, and it’s an expression Chase almost never sees on his big brother. But it’s there, sometimes. Times like this. 

“Of course you’re not normal,” Chase sighs. “You can benchpress a semi truck and make toast with your eyeballs. And… and you’ve saved more lives than any of the jerks at school. Adam, there’s nothing wrong with being… with liking a guy. You can like any guy you want, alright? And if anyone gives you trouble… Bree and I will rough them up.” Adam raises one eyebrow. “Bree will rough them up.” 

Finally, Adam brightens up a little. “Thanks, Chase,” he says quietly. 

“Totally.” Chase claps him on the shoulder, feeling a little awkward. “You can talk to me about this kind of stuff, you know? About Owen, and… about anything. I’ll listen.”

Adam nods. “Hey, thanks for talking to me, Chase,” he says. “But… you know that by law, now I gotta throw you across the room.”

“That’s not a law,” Chase says, already scrambling to get away. 

“It is to me.” Adam lunges for him and then they’re racing across the lab, zigging and zagging around Leo’s chair and the cyberdesk. For the first time, Chase isn’t actually all that annoyed. He can tell there’s a weight that’s been lifted from Adam’s chest. And that’s worth all the Bionic Brother Tosses in the world. 


End file.
